Participant 07

“Participant 07” is a refugee from the DRC. She addresses in her journal issues of promiscuity, fidelity, grief, and care of orphans, advising men to be faithful to their wives.

I am a 56 year old widow. I tested HIV positive in 2005. My CD4 count was 134. [At t]hat time I had TB. I did not know that I had the virus before because I was fit and healthy. I know I contracted the virus from my late husband who was a drunkard and very promisc[u]ous. I was a very faithful wife and to this day I never slept with any other man. I would like to urge men out in the world to be faithful [and] to stick to one partner. At the present moment I am looking after three grandchildren orphaned due to AIDS. My daughter married a man who was also promisc[u]ous and she contracted the virus and they both died at an early age. The husband was 33 years old and the wife was 26 years old. People should be educated about these things. They should be made aware.

Beauty’s Vineyard

Originally, ten scholarly essays were published on this blog. These essays discussed how Christian theology can positively inform response to HIV/AIDS, as informed by theological aesthetics. In short, they were crafting a socially engaged theology of Beauty. Those essays have now been greatly expanded and published under the title, Beauty's Vineyard: A Theological Aesthetic of Anguish and Anticipation (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2016).